Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for establishing a system capable of managing devices on a network.
Description of the Related Art
In a network device management system that manages devices connected to a network, a server on which dedicated management software operates realizes a management function by communicating with the devices as management targets. When a large number of devices connected to regionally distributed networks are centrally managed, there are some management systems in which a client is installed for each distributed network for the purpose of distribution of processing or reduction of loads. The server causes each client to obtain various pieces of information from the devices as management targets, and to transmit the information to the server.
In order to establish the management system, identification information needs to be mutually registered between the server and the client. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-331397 includes a discussion about initialization processing for setting information about a management apparatus as a monitoring target to a centralized management apparatus. In this patent document, when identification information (i.e., an ID number) of the management apparatus is input from an operation unit of a copying machine, the management apparatus obtains the information from the copying machine, and transmits the identification information to the centralized management apparatus. Finally, the management apparatus receives initial data including information such as transmitted time of a regular report from the centralized management apparatus, and stores the initial data in itself, thus the initialization processing is completed.
In the above-described prior art, when identification information is input via the operation unit, there is a possibility that an input mistake by a worker may occur. Further, in a case where many devices are installed at the same time, manual inputting job itself becomes a significant load.